How does Steven Motlop’s free agency compensation stack up against other stars?

GEELONG has been awarded the same free agency compensation pick for Steven Motlop as Hawthorn got for Lance Franklin. Is that fair? See where the pick ranks against other deals.

Steven Motlop has left Geelong. Picture: Getty Images

FOOTY fans were left scratching their heads on Saturday when it emerged Geelong would get an end of first round compensation pick (currently 19) for Steven Motlop.

The Cats had been widely expected to secure a second-round pick for the departing forward, around the 35 region.

Just 12 months ago Motlop was under fire from all angles after a lacklustre finals series.

Port Adelaide premiership player Kane Cornes said, “You feel like he needs a change of scenery to get the best out of his unbelievable ability.”

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St Kilda great Danny Frawley said Motlop looked “jittery” and “non-competitive” in the Cats’ horror preliminary final loss to the Swans.

Geelong hero Cameron Ling said Motlop had “let Chris Scott down” while Wayne Carey said the Cats needed to ask Motlop, ‘Do you really want to play AFL footy at this level?’

As of Saturday, Motlop’s free agency compensation is equal to what Hawthorn got for Lance Franklin when he left as a free agent at the end of the 2013 season.

Free Agency Pick Ranking

Ranking	Original Club	Player	Draft Round	Draft Pick
1	Melbourne	James Frawley	First Round	3
2	Collingwood	Dale Thomas	First Round	11
3	St Kilda	Brendon Goddard	First Round	13
4	Brisbane	Tom Rockliff	End of First Round	18 (provisional)
5	Geelong	Steven Motlop	End of First Round	19 (provisional)
6	Hawthorn	Lance Franklin	First Round	19
7	Melbourne	Colin Sylvia	Second Round	23
8	St Kilda	Nick Dal Santo	Second Round	25
9	Fremantle	Chris Mayne	Second Round	25
10	Western Bulldogs	Shaun Higgins	Second Round	27
11	Port Adelaide	Danyle Pearce	Second Round	29
12	Richmond	Ty Vickery	Second Round	29
13	Port Adelaide	Troy Chaplin	Second Round	30
14	North Melbourne	Daniel Wells	Second Round	36

Cats get pick No.20 for Steve Motlop. Considering no one wanted him this time last year, that is an extraordinary result.

— Jay Clark (@ClarkyHeraldSun) October 14, 2017

Wow. No one expected Cats to get 19 for Motlop. Could they trade that for Essendon's two 20s picks? Gets Essendon home on Stringer

— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) October 14, 2017

Then the Cats can take an extra pick in the draft, have three picks between 25 and 35 for Ablett trade if can't find a player to go

— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) October 14, 2017

AFL reckons losing Buddy is worth exactly the same compensation as losing Motlop. 🙄

— Paul Montgomery (@m0nty) October 14, 2017

Pick 19 for Motlop?? That was Buddy’s compo. Spare me

— Luke Chambers (@lukeychambers) October 14, 2017

Meanwhile, this is how the Motlop compensation compared to picks handed out to clubs which lost players to expansion sides Gold Coast and GWS.

EXPANSION CLUB COMPO

GOLD COAST

Geelong: Gary Ablett — two first-round picks

Brisbane: Michael Rischitelli — end of first round pick

Adelaide: Nathan Bock — end of first round pick

Brisbane: Jared Brennan — end of first-round pick

Western Bulldogs: Jarrod Harbrow — end of first-round pick

Port Adelaide: Nathan Krakouer — second-round pick

Collingwood: Josh Fraser — third-round pick

GWS

Melbourne: Tom Scully — two first-round picks

Western Bulldogs: Callan Ward — first-round pick

Adelaide: Phil Davis — first-round pick

Fremantle: Rhys Palmer — end of first-round pick

Western Bulldogs: Sam Reid — third-round pick

Meanwhile, player agent Scott Lucas believes the compensation win for the Cats could put them back in the running to secure Jack Watts.

Watts had also been tipped to join the Power with Geelong pulling out of the race because it didn’t have enough to trade for the Melbourne forward.

“I think it creates a level of flexibility for them (Geelong). Stringer, Watts and Ablett, it enables them to do a bit there,” Lucas said on SEN.

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“I would say the obvious one that they would be back in on, and he may have already made his decision, (is) Watts.

“I think that (pick 19) is a bit high for Ablett.

“Gold Coast has got a lot of second round picks. You might swap 19 for Ablett and get the Gold Coast’s 27 and then the 27 can go to Melbourne to get Watts.”